congratulations || jeongchan

- 13 - Wait -

That's great

Jeongin pushed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, feeling all the divots and grooves that remained from when he fell at the age of three. He was sat on the slide in the children's playground, his exposed skin sticking uncomfortably to the plastic as he shifted. The breeze tousled his hair and blew his thin tee shirt even further off of his collarbones. A lighter was in his hand, a reminder of his previous self destructive tendencies, flicking on and off and on and off, the flame licking at his jeans occasionally. But it wouldn't do any harm.

"It's rare that anyone else comes up here," a low voice murmured from behind him, a warm body emitting heat as the boy sat down with his back to Jeongin's.  "I usually come here to cry, you know." The stranger scoffed slightly, a vague rustling seemed to indicated he was shaking his head. "This was my soulmate's favourite spot, it probably still is. I don't know, though, he got so pissed off when he found out I had another soulmate."

Jeongin laughed without humour, watching the flame disappear before he brought it back to life - the only thing he had control over. Unless it came too close, then it had control over him. "Men ain't shit," he whispered, thinking the wind would carry his voice away from the stranger.

"Damn right. And yet here we are, messes over them."

"How do you know that's why I'm here?" It was a dry tone.

"No offence, honey, but the tee shirt which clearly isn't yours, the lighter situation and the angsty teen complex absolutely screams heartbreak."

"Cheers, mate." A habit he had picked up from Chan. He almost cried.

"Don't worry, you'll learn to deal with the pain. At first its searing and you only want them back, but eventually you realise all they did was fuck you over and you become numb to the asshole. Or so I'm told. I haven't reached the second stage yet." The boy's voice held an odd cheer, as if he was happy that he was falling to pieces. That must be a very unique brand of highly tuned optimism. Or sarcasm. Somehow, Jeongin suspected the latter.

There was a lull in sound for a while, bar the continuous clicking of the marbled blue lighter. Chan hated it. He had bought it for Jeongin and then later decided that it was his fault Jeongin got ill. The fact that Jeongin was going to be sick for an indefinite period of time could be pinned on a number of things, but for Chan it was the lighter. So, Jeongin supposed, this was definitely an act of rebellion.

"I'm sick," Jeongin announced, finally allowing the reality of those words to sink in, "And I wont ever get better."

The stranger sat in silence for a few moments before he let out a low whistle, "That sucks."

And in all the years he had been telling people, Jeongin had never received a reaction quite as accurate as that. "Yeah, it really fucking does. And there's nothing anybody can do." The lighter clicked off and Jeongin hurled it into the lake beyond the playground, stupid. Why would he ever bring something like that back out. It was beyond pointless.

"Well, as much as I would love to stay, I have to be going now." Jeongin nodded, staring at his feet, "If you ever need someone to talk to then it's a safe bet that I'll be here." Jeongin nodded again, "Goodbye, heart broken teen."

The warmth of another being left Jeongin as the stranger stood up and allowed his bones to crack from the vague cramp he had been suffering.

"Bye."

A/N - I know this is kinda really short but I've been mentally a mess and this is already late so I thought I should post